One of the most compelling features of Maven is its ability to handle dependencies and version updates efficiently. Maven dynamically downloads libraries and plug-ins from one or more repositories, saving developers the hassle of manually managing dependencies.

Get ready to dive deep into the world of Maven as we explore its features, objectives, architecture, life cycle, phases, goals, and more. So, this blog is for you whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting!

Digging Deeper with Maven

The Maven project was developed by the Apache Software Foundation, which was formerly a part of the Jakarta project. Maven is a powerful build automation tool primarily used for Java-based projects. Maven helps to tackle two critical aspects of building software –

• It describes how software is built.
• It describes the dependencies.

Maven prefers convention over configuration. It downloads the plug-ins and the Java Libraries dynamically from several repositories and finally accumulates them in the local cache.

The artifacts of the local projects can also be updated with this local cache. Maven can also help to build and manage projects written in C#Ruby, Scala, and other languages.

To build a project in Maven, Project Object Model(POM) file is an XML-type file containing details relating to the project and information about the configuration like source directory, dependencies plug-in, goals, etc.

Maven reads the pom.xml file to accomplish its configuration and operations.

Maven Objectives

When should you use Maven?

• When you have too many dependencies in the project.
• When the dependency version updates frequently.
• When there is a requirement for continuous builds, integration, and testing.
• When you need an easy way to generate documentation from the source code, compile the source code, packaging compiled code into JAR files or ZIP files.

Maven Architecture

Maven life cycle:

In order to deploy and distribute the target project, Maven tracks a defined life cycle:

There are three built-in life cycles:

• Default: Responsible for the project deployment. Making it a primary life cycle of Maven.
• Clean: To clean and remove every file resulting from the project's previous builds.
• Site: To create the site documentation of the project.

The life cycle constitutes a sequence of phases. For example, the default build lifecycle consists of 23 phases, Maven's primary build life cycle. On the other hand, a clean life cycle consists of 3 stages, while the site life cycle comprises 4 phases.

Maven Phases:

Maven build life cycles comprise numerous Maven phases.

Each phase executes a specific task.

• validate – This phase checks if all information necessary for the build is available
• compile – This phase compiles the source code
• test-compile – This phase compiles the test source code
• test – This phase runs unit tests
• package – This phase packages compiled source code into the distributable format (jar, war)
• integration-test – This phase processes and deploys the package if needed to run integration tests
• install – This phase install the package to a local repository
• deploy – This phase copies the package to the remote repository

Maven Goals:

A phase consists of a sequence of goals, where each of the goals functions as a particular task.

While executing a phase, Maven runs every goal in a meaningful order, associating the specific phase. The syntax used is the plugin:goal. A few of the phases and default goals are:

• compiler:compile – compile phase
• compiler:test – test-compile phase
• surefire:test – test phase
• install:install – install phase
• jar and war:war – package phase

These Maven plugins are a set of goals. These goals are sometimes all bound to different phases. For example, the Maven Failsafe plugin is responsible for running integration tests. On the other hand, for unit testing, we need the Maven surefire plugin.

Conclusion

Now you know that Maven is a powerful build automation tool essential for any Java-based project. It allows developers to tackle two critical aspects of building software- describing how software is built and describing dependencies.

Maven's Project Object Model (POM) file and its ability to handle frequent dependency version updates make it a go-to choice for developers worldwide. Additionally, its continuous build, integration and testing capabilities, as well as its ability to generate documentation from source code, make it a valuable tool for any development team. Furthermore, Maven's architecture, life cycle, and phases provide a structured project deployment and distribution approach.

In short, Maven is a versatile and efficient tool that can help you streamline the software development process. It is widely used by developers worldwide and is a must-have tool for any Java-based project. So, why not give Maven a try and see how it can revolutionize your development process.